Archive for the 'Ted Williams' Tag Under 'Angels' Category

Mike Trout hit his second home run of the series and 21st home run of the season in the eighth inning Justin Wilson, cutting down the Yankees lead to 3-1.

Trout has been on fire in his last 40 games, hitting 11 home runs and batting well over .300. With his home run Monday, Trout had hit 20 home runs for the fourth time before his age-24 season, becoming one of four American League players to do so, including Alex Rodriguez, Tony Conigliaro, Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams. Williams would have had a chance for a fifth, but the Splendid Splinter missed three seasons serving in World War II.

Trout has also hit more than 20 homers twice prior to the All-Star break for the second time, making him one of four to do so prior to their age 24 season. Trout joins Albert Pujols, Jose Canseco and Eddie Mathews in that exclusive club.

Trout took second place in the American League home run chase all to himself with his 21st bomb. Trout still trails Pujols, 24, for the American League lead and is sixth in all of baseball in home runs. Trout is also fourth in the MLB in runs scored, with 57.

-- Maicer Izturis played a career-high 122 games, and had 62 more at-bats than his best Angels season, 2009. There is a possibility he was over-exposed, though. Except for a team-high 35 doubles, Izturis was not nearly as productive, and he took at-bats away from Howie Kendrick and Alberto Callaspo. Izturis also made eight errors, his high since 2006.

-- Ex-Angel Mike Napoli never batted higher than .282 in 10 previous professional seasons, and that was in Class-A at Rancho Cucamonga. He never hit higher than .273 as an Angel. He will be 30 at the end of next month, and due a significant raise in arbitration, after 30 homers, .320 and a career-best .414 OBP (almost a hundred points higher than 2010) for Texas. Was 2011 an outlier, or a reasonable expectation of what Napoli can do in his 30s?

-- Despite the offensive drain he put on the lineup, the Angels were 45-34 when Jeff Mathis started behind the plate, and 41-42 when he did not. Catching Jered Weaver helped a lot, to be sure, and it might be a just a coincidence that the Angels had a better chance of winning with Mathis catching.

-- Ex-Angel Casey Kotchman had vision problems corrected in the offseason, made the Rays as a nonroster invitee, shoved Dan Johnson aside at first base, and batted .306 in 563 plate appearances. Again, it might be an outlier, but Kotchman was a career .323 hitter in the minors, and batted .296 and .287 in his final 1 1/2 seasons with the Angels.

Rickey Henley Henderson is in baseball's Hall of Fame, inducted Sunday with Jim Rice and the late Joe Gordon.

Henderson is the game's alltime leader in runs (2,295) and stolen bases (1,406), and fourth in games played (3,081).

Only Pete Rose, Carl Yastrzemski and Hank Aaron played in more games than the Man of Steal -- who, even at 50, would still like to play some more, if someone would just give Rickey a uniform.

Henderson played 32 games as an Angel at age 38 in 1997, and finished his 25-year career with 30 games as a Dodger in 2003 at 44. Those were his two least-effective stops. He batted .183 as an Angel and .208 as a Dodger.